Advice on New iMac

[Cigsm]

I'm also going to be asking about Aperture over in the software forum but here goes.

I'm in the process of starting up a photography business (with some VERY light video & editing as well). I'm trying to determine what the best iMac is to get, without breaking the bank.

I'm looking at

27" iMac
3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5
Apple Magic Mouse + Magic Trackpad
Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) & User's Guide

This will pretty much strictly be a "work" computer. I'll be running Photoshop, Final Cut & a few other random things.

SHould this be sufficient? More than sufficient? Can I go lower? Etc

Thanks all.

 

[Duluth Baptist]

That computer will be plenty for years. Save some money, buy and install the extra RAM yourself. Having both the mouse and trackpad will be nice, but do you need that much?

You could easily get away with getting less than that. That is a fully tricked-out system you are describing, and with what you describe as very light video and still photo work, you could do the same on a lower grade machine with no noticeable performance deficit. Still, if you have the cash you can have the confidence of having a competitive machine well into the 20-teens.

 

[iRobby]

I'm also going to be asking about Aperture over in the software forum but here goes.

I'm in the process of starting up a photography business (with some VERY light video & editing as well). I'm trying to determine what the best iMac is to get, without breaking the bank.

I'm looking at

27" iMac
3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5
Apple Magic Mouse + Magic Trackpad
Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) & User's Guide

This will pretty much strictly be a "work" computer. I'll be running Photoshop, Final Cut & a few other random things.

SHould this be sufficient? More than sufficient? Can I go lower? Etc

Thanks all.

Also order the computer from Apple Store only with 4GB RAM upgrade the RAM yourself with memory from either OWC. The price for the RAM is a lot cheaper OWC Install Videos / iMac mid 2011 / Memory

APPLE:
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB [Add $200.00]
16GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x4GB [Add $600.00]

OWC:
8.0GB PC10600 1333MHZ SO Kit (4GB + 4GB) $104.99 (reality: 12GB buy the 8GB Kit put the (2) 4GB sticks in the 2 empty slots and keep the original (2) 2GB in the other two slots 4GBx2 +2GBx2= 12GB) pay $93.00 less and get 4 extra GB
16GB PC10600 1333MHZ SO Kit (4 x 4GB) $207.99

 

[swarleystinson]

Also order the computer from Apple Store only with 4GB RAM upgrade the RAM yourself with memory from either OWC. The price for the RAM is a lot cheaper OWC Install Videos / iMac mid 2011 / Memory

APPLE:
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB [Add $200.00]
16GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x4GB [Add $600.00]

OWC:
8.0GB PC10600 1333MHZ SO Kit (4GB + 4GB) $104.99 (reality: 12GB buy the 8GB Kit put the (2) 4GB sticks in the 2 empty slots and keep the original (2) 2GB in the other two slots 4GBx2 +2GBx2= 12GB) pay $93.00 less and get 4 extra GB
16GB PC10600 1333MHZ SO Kit (4 x 4GB) $207.99

Are you serious!!!??? I assumed the factory upgrade would be as difficult as the mid-2010 (removing the entire display). I had no idea apple would go and re-engineer stuff to make it more awesome w/ regards to self-upgrade. Damnit!
Definitely don't make my mistake! Buy your own RAM. I bought factory 8 GB b/c I thought it would be a pain to do it myself. Honestly, 4 GB would be enough. Furthermore, with your usage I wouldn't even waste the $100 on the extra VRAM on your GPU. You won't meet that usage with Aperture, iPhoto 11 (or 12, or likely 13!). You'd get major bang for your buck (an expensive buck) if you went with a solid state drive.
Your bottleneck will be much more your harddrive at that point. Even gaming it doesn't make much of a difference. I did the same thing: I'm spending $2K, what's $100 more?? But after more post-purchase research (AKA fretting), I realized most of the data points to 1GB being plenty.

If money is really an issue, I'd go w/ 4GB RAM and 1 GB graphics card. If you can afford it, go SSD and standard HD or just do the 2TB upgrade. If you're saving a lot of HD pics/videos, an external Thunderbolt hard drive will be perfect for you down the road.

 

[Icy1007]

Um, you can upgrade RAM very easily in the 2010 iMac as well. It's the same. Only need to remove the screen if you're messing with the HDD.

 

[Ubuntu]

Um, you can upgrade RAM very easily in the 2010 iMac as well. It's the same. Only need to remove the screen if you're messing with the HDD.

That's not really the point. The earlier iMac did require the user to remove the screen and obviously he presumed it was still the case with the iMac, regardless of which year's model he thought it was.

 

[macjunkie33]

1GB Graphics Card Overkill?

I'm a designer working mostly in Photoshop, Illustrator, and recently a lot of Final Cut Pro. I have had a MacBook Pro for a couple of years and it has done the job quite well but I desired a larger workspace and bought the 27" imac with the 512mb AMD card. I don't run dual monitors either and don't plan to with the 27"

Any reason to grab the 1GB video card for the 27"? Can I upgrade later in the life of my iMac if I want? I keep feeling like 1GB would be overkill for my use at the time. Who knows where I'll be in 2-3 years but perhaps by then I'll be on my next generation machine. It is only 300 more though...Would I see any noticeable difference in editing HD video?

Thoughts?

 

[Cigsm]

Thanks everyone! I have a feeling at 3am tonight (eastern time) the Back to School sale will start & I'll purchase then. I'll let you guys know the final set up

 

[Badger^2]

That's not really the point. The earlier iMac did require the user to remove the screen and obviously he presumed it was still the case with the iMac, regardless of which year's model he thought it was.

No iMac has ever had to have the screen removed in order to install ram. No matter what year. Even the original Bondi blue G3 233 didnt.

You really dont need that setup. The basic i5 would be more than plenty.

 

[theSeb]

You mention light photo and video editing and not breaking the bank, yet you've specced the fastest processor and the 2GB of video ram?

The basic 21 would be powerful enough for you. Or if you really want the larger screen then the basic 27". If you're feeling flush, you may want to get the ssd and the normal hdd, but it's not necessary. Don't get the ram from Apple as mentioned above.

If I were you, I would be more concerned about saving money for the eternal storage that you will need, especially when you are only just starting your business.

 

[xparaparafreakx]

Max out that ram if you going to do heavy PS. Im going to assume you shoot huge RAW files.